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There are things that we cannot imagine because they are impossible (like a solution to Russell's set theory, since it is impossible to reach that solution because it is illogical.)
Some months ago, ...

Which states of mind that are classified as mental illnesses might be a natural and useful part of our brains?
For example, some evolutionary biologists have suggested that some types of depression ...

I want to apologize in advance for my dearth of knowledge concerning cognitive science research and history, I'm an AI student.
I've been reading up on cognitive science/linguistics literature mostly ...

Is the natural avoidance of incest something that is learned or is the human brain programmed by instinct to have a negative response to incest? This of course would have an evolutionary advantage and ...

Conway III and Schaller (2002, p. 153) argue that "There is a long history of lodging charges of non-falsifiability against evolutionary thinking in the biological sciences". One of the critics they ...

I have been noticing for quite a while that I have this instinct to tear off and throw seeds from trees and plants.
This happens quite literally without any thought and I rarely even notice the act.
...

I have come across people preserving some old articles with them, which although of little day to day use to them today, they would still like to retain. I myself would love to retain any old article ...

I understand why babies seem cute to us from an evolutionary point of view: They need our protection and love to grow, so it's beneficial for them to look good for us, or at least their parents, since ...

It is obvious that human beings on many occasions consider others to be inferior, whether this relates to specific individuals, or to groups.
However, it also seems to me that humans very often feel ...

Speaking from the point of view of evolutionary psychology, is there any research that demonstrates why a 'sense of humor' may be a part of our mental mechanisms?
Does research show that it is a way ...

People cry when they experience intense emotions. Crying seems to occur most frequently in intense episodes of sadness and fear, but sometimes also happens when people are very happy or angry. What is ...

In one of his books (cannot recall title now) Konrad Lorentz (ethology study) describes the phenomenon of the appearance of a friendly smile as a spontaneous inversion of a warning grin. He does not ...

In Wikipedia's article on evolutionary psychology, two of six given key premises of EP are as follows:
Different neural mechanisms are specialized for solving problems in humanity's evolutionary past....

I don't think I need to give evidence that people do seek acknowledgement; if it's not from parents, it's from lovers or friends. It can be things as big as life ambitions/achievements (e.g. 'I will ...

I sometimes hear from my friends that a man who has many female sexual partners is regarded as macho. But on the other hand, a woman with a lot of one-night stands is thought to be easy and desperate (...

As some theories suggest, most, if not all, biological features in organisms exist due to environmental factors that trigger the organism's eventual adaptation to these factors for survival purposes. ...

As a Carl Sagan fan, I remember (in Cosmos TV shoe) "territoriality, aggression and ritual" are products of the reptile brain while higher-level stuff like loyalty, planning for future are mammalian, ...

Why humans (most of them, and certainly all those around me) enjoy fictional stories in one form or the other - novels, films, theater performances?
The starting assumption is that there must be an ...

I assume that it is the brain that has put human beings at the top of the food chain (Biped and opposable thumbs aside).
Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest suggest that the best specimens of ...

I am curious as to what current research shows regarding why scraping noises such as fingernails on a chalkboard, a knife/fork scraping against a plate, metal grinding against metal or stone etc are ...

I have been debating the following topic with a friend.
She argues that humans do not descend from chimpanzees or orang-utans, because if we did, such animals would share the same cognitive thinking ...

Recently, I read several interesting questions on the web about the relationship between IQ and general intelligence and physiological symmetry. But more importantly, what explains the correlation? Or ...

Recently I disagreed with the assumption, that lots of neurotransmitters came within recent 10,000 years of Homo Sapiens evolution.
Judging from the available information sources, there is possibility ...

Having an interest in human psychology (but no formal training) I decided to take Coursera's Introduction to Psychology as a Science. Here's a snippet from an introductory lecture (it requires signup,...

According to the Fox News article "Chimps Smarter Than Humans in Memory Test" chimps were able to significantly outperform humans in a simple working memory task. I quote one part of the article in ...